Mr Davison was very much astonished to recover his property so quickly, especially as we gave him no clue to the thief, or a hint of our modus operandi.
We only advised him to remove his pawnbroking business to safer premises.
It does not do for private detectives to let their clients know how simple their business can be on occasion.
II. Hoist on her Own Petard
We were morally certain that Madame Rose Gringoire was no other than the Fraulein Bertha Gerhardt, whom we had been patiently seeking for six months. But moral certainty is a long way removed from proof positive, and the client who was employing us was slow to believe that we had almost cornered our quarry.
You see, the circumstances were not merely peculiar. They were of desperate moment, and upon the circumvention of Bertha Gerhardt’s intrigues depended either the reputation or the fortune of a family which had, by virtue of its wealth and spotless lineage, made itself a power in its residential county. Sir Arthur and Lady Brackett were desperately anxious to recover some papers which the whilom governess had abstracted from a secret drawer in which they were believed to be in absolutely safe keeping.
Of the precise nature of these documents professional honour forbids me to speak. Equally momentous secrets are often confided to us, and the many cases of a delicate nature with which our firm are entrusted are the outcome of a steadily growing reputation for discretion and reliability. Were blackmailing our forte, we might wax rich on our knowledge of the strange events and conditions which harass the lives, and endanger the prosperity, of the apparently rich and happy.
To the latter class belonged Sir Arthur and Lady Brackett, and we were the more anxious to bring their case to a satisfactory issue because we knew that the somewhat disreputable family doings in which this trouble originated were condemned by them at the time, and were beyond their power to prevent.
How Bertha Gerhardt obtained her knowledge of the skeleton in their cupboard is still a mystery. But it is believed that Sir Arthur’s scapegrace brother, who hated his father’s heir with a hatred which could hardly be equalled by men of alien races, had made a confidant of her, and that she had sought the post of governess as a means of securing the incriminating documents.
“Have you a photograph of Fraulein Gerhardt?” inquired Mr Bell, before whom Sir Arthur had just laid his case.